Book Reviews

Book Review Editor: Donovan R. Hardenbrook, NPDP

I am honored to have been chosen as the Journal of

Product Innovation Management’s (JPIM’s) new

book review editor. First and foremost, I want to

thank Preston Smith for making the transition an easy

one. Preston’s experience and insights have helped

bring me up the learning curve. His patience was

much appreciated.

Second, managing the book review process is cer-

tainly more complicated than I had imagined but is

fascinating nonetheless. As in the development of any

product or service there are many people involved in the

creation process, and considerable planning takes place

prior to actual publication.

Last but not least is my admiration for our JPIM

book reviewers. The care and effort taken to create the

quality book reviews that meet JPIM’s high standards

requires critical thought and experience in new product

development.We will continue to make our book reviews

insightful, critical, and practical for you, our readers.

Books reviewed in this issue:

� Innovation Leaders: How Senior Executives Stimu-

late, Steer, and Sustain Innovation

� Understanding A3 Thinking: A Critical Component

of Toyota’s PDCA Management System

� Value Merchants: Demonstrating and Documenting

Superior Value in Business Markets

Innovation Leaders: How Senior ExecutivesStimulate, Steer, and Sustain InnovationJean-Philippe Deschamps. New York: John Wiley

& Sons Ltd., 2008. 433þ xxii pages. US$34.95.

First, full disclosure: I have admired the work of Jean-

Philippe Deschamps since I first met him at a Product

Development & Management Association (PDMA)

Frontier Dialogue in the early 1990s. He has been a

frequent contributor to my organization, Innovation

and Product Development (IAPD, a corporate mem-

ber program of the PDMA) and credits ‘‘the interest

and encouragement’’ of the IAPD members, when he

presented the ideas contained in Innovation Leaders

with having him ‘‘decide to go ahead and write this

book’’ (p. xxii). I’m glad he did, and I hope, in this

review, to give you a sense of why this book is valu-

able for innovators and product developers.

Deschamps claims to be providing ‘‘a first map of

the hitherto underexplored territory of innovation

leadership’’ (p. xxi, italics in original). Innovation

Leaders takes a close and careful look at the network

of leaders a company needs to succeed at innovation.

There are excellent books on the need for leadership

in innovation and on what it takes to lead innovation

(think of Wheelwright and Clark’s (1995) Leading

Product Development, but Deschamps’s may well be

the first to explore the varied territory of innovation

and to connect leadership qualities explicitly to the

different aspects of that terrain. There’s no one talent

or attribute that makes for a good innovation leader.

Rather, we must look, for example, at the need for

top-down as well as bottom-up leadership, at the

differences among innovation strategies, at the fuzzy

front end, and at the speedy back end.

Innovation Leaders grows out of Deschamps’s

research and experience across many companies and

industries in his role as consultant and, since 1996, as

professor of technology and innovation management

at the International Institute for Management Devel-

opment (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland. The book

draws on his intimate experience of the issues faced by

the innovation leaders he has known, worked with,

and interviewed. Deschamps’s use of this experience is

twofold. First, he creates literal maps of the innova-

tion landscape, showing us that leadership that works

in one situation (e.g., the innovation of a line exten-

sion) would be completely wrong in another (e.g., the

innovation of a new business system model). Second,

he provides portraits of many different innovation

leaders. In his own words, ‘‘based on empirical

research, this book will analyze the profiles and attri-

butes of various innovation leaders. The portrait will

J PROD INNOV MANAG 2009;26:241–246r 2009 Product Development & Management Association

be impressionistic . . . [and] each brushstroke will add

a dimension to our description’’ (p. 6). If you want

strict correlations between leadership approaches and

innovation successes, this may not be the book for

you. If you want to understand how leaders succeed

and fail in the varied and complex landscape of inno-

vation, by getting the real story of what they think

and feel and do, then dig in.

Deschamps does not believe in silver bullets, in ap-

proaches and solutions that are applicable everywhere

and always successful. In fact, maybe none of us do,

but we fall for them far too often. He tells you to look

and see what is going on—internally and externally—

and what you want to achieve. Then, and only then, you

might figure out what intervention might work. His

view of the corporation is systemic, and his advice about

intervention reflects the uncertainty of predicting the

effects of any action in a system. The only way to have a

chance at this is to understand the system you are work-

ing in. His case studies provide example after example of

how different kinds of leadership played out.

Deschamps gives plenty of good advice. For exam-

ple, ‘‘As a top management team, you should ask

whether your company’s senior innovation resources

are sufficiently aligned with your strategy; in other

words whether your senior officers match up with the

leadership requirements of your innovation strategy’’

(p. 166). The way you find that out is by exploring

where you are in the innovation landscape, which

Deschamps lays out in graph after graph. For exam-

ple, Figure 6.1 lays out Deschamps’s proposed dimen-

sions of innovation strategy: objective (why innovate);

scope or focus (where to innovate); intensity (how

much to innovate); boundaries (with whom to inno-

vate) (p. 168). If you disagree with the categories

he lays out and the typology he draws from them, go

ahead and come up with your own, but pay attention

to the need to provide appropriate leadership to the

different dimensions, whatever they are.

As you read Deschamps’s cases, ask yourself how

they illuminate something that might be going on in

your company. Medtronic, a leader in medical tech-

nology, began to lose its reputation as an innovator

as it lost market share and faced quality problems.

Deschamps’s interviews with several top executives

show that the company, rather than seeing the warn-

ing signs, basically went into denial: ‘‘People were

trying to hang on to what they had and becoming

too conservative,’’ chief operating officer (COO) and

President Bill George said to Deschamps in a 2001

interview (p. 207). Medtronic brought in Mike

Stevens, ‘‘a no-nonsense type of leader’’ (p. 209)

who pushed process and discipline. He was not inter-

ested in breakthroughs. He reduced risks on pro-

jects—when the team couldn’t commit to delivering

the technology he would sideline the project until the

next year—and he demanded adherence to schedules.

The changes in Medtronic’s’ results were impres-

sive, but, Deschamps asks, ‘‘was Mike Stevens really

an innovation leader? . . . Most people would call

Stevens a tough operational manager, period’’

(pp. 213–214). But Deschamps’s approach to innova-

tion leadership asks us to look not at the individual

leader alone but at the interaction of a diversity of

leadership styles within the multifaceted territory we

call innovation. When Stevens launched a project to

reduce the cost of the pacemaker, another Medtronic

innovation leader launched a parallel project. This

other leader was ‘‘always on the lookout for new

ideas’’ (p. 219), and he wanted to make sure that the

cost reduction effort wasn’t too conservative. Stevens

was able to use ideas from Griffin’s project to produce

a pacemaker at an extremely low cost.

Deschamps stresses that ‘‘there is not a ‘one-size-fits-

all’ approach to innovation leadership’’ (p. xix). He also

points out, ‘‘Without Griffin, the company would have

missed many exciting growth opportunities. Without

Stevens it would perhaps have missed the market ben-

efits of these innovations’’ (p. 221). He ends the chapter,

and the case, with an exhortation to all senior execu-

tives: ‘‘Look inside your organization to identify your

Mr. (or Ms.) Discipline and your Mr. (or Ms.) Creativ-

ity! . . .. How can you help them create momentum for

growth and deliver?’’ (p. 221).

Innovation Leaders includes a number of instructive

cases, including the following: Tetra Pak’s use of a

‘‘chain of leadership’’ to guide a breakthrough project

into the market; TiVo’s combination of visionary

leaders with pragmatic architects as they developed

a whole new business system; and Philips’ and Sara

Lee’s orchestration of a new coffee brewing system.

Deschamps’s final case, how Logitech developed a

cadre of innovation leaders, demonstrates that the the-

ory of innovation leadership describe in the book is

anything but theoretical. Deschamps gives us the story,

with close-ups of the leaders involved, their decision-

making process, and their unanswered questions, of how

the company assessed its innovation leadership needs

and intentionally built the network of leaders it needed.

As Deschamps suggests, this book is more impres-

sionistic than scholarly. The best use of the book

will be to ‘‘compare the leadership environment ’’ that

242 J PROD INNOV MANAG2009;26:241–246

BOOK REVIEWS

Deschamps describes ‘‘with the realities in your com-

pany’’ (p. 359), assess the strengths, and fill in gaps.

‘‘For innovation . . . isolated leaders are unlikely to be

effective’’ (p. 359). Deschamps’s pictures of the inno-

vation landscape and stories of leadership can help

you to build the network you need.

Reference

Wheelwright, S.C. and Clark, K.C. (1995). Leading Product Develop-ment: The Senior Manager’s Guide to Creating and Shaping theEnterprise. New York: Free Press.

Beebe Nelson

Working Forums LLC

Understanding A3 Thinking: A Critical Com-ponent of Toyota’s PDCAManagement SystemDurward K. Sobek II and Art Smalley. New York:

CRC Press, 2008. 159þ viii pages. US$40.00.

Understanding A3 thinking starts off with the premise

that the majority of companies and organizations put

much effort into effective problem-solving methods, but

these do not translate through to underlying organiza-

tional problem; the domain of the problem-solving

techniques resides in ‘‘fire-fighting’’ only. Durward

Sobek and Art Smalley’s intent is to present a general

purpose tool that can be used for problem solving not

only to fight the fires but also to ensure that the primary

issues of ‘‘fuel and heat’’ are resolved. To this end, Sobek

and Smalley invoke the methods and tools developed by

Toyota. Specifically, they make use of the A3 report and

the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycle as the frame-

work on which to build the fundamentals of ‘‘A3 think-

ing’’; they are more than successful.

The A3 report is so called as it is usually presented

on an A3-size piece of paper. Although the book goes

on to provide outline templates of A3 reports for

different situations and scenarios Sobek and Smalley

are diligent in pointing out that it is the thinking

behind the process that is key and that ‘‘adherents

who value form over substance’’ (p. 11) will struggle

to maximize the benefits on offer. This health warning

is highlighted in several places throughout the book.

The PDCA cycle is at the heart of the thinking being

promoted; the A3 reports will help the immediate

problem to be resolved but, more importantly for the

organization as a whole, will ensure that the problem

is less likely to reoccur and that the problem solver

will improve his or her knowledge and abilities to

tackle other problems.

Coherence within and consistency across organiza-

tion make it valuable and very accessible to all types of

industry—product developers and service providers

alike.

The book and its layout are pleasing aesthetically,

ergonomically, and contextually. The text is broken

into concise subsections containing useful diagrams

and references that add value to and understanding of

the text. The book contains eight chapters, which can

be split into three sections. The first section covers an

introduction to the PDCA cycle and the heart of the

thinking and the theory behind A3. The second sec-

tion covers specific examples of A3 thinking and re-

ports based around three typical issues with which

users will be more than familiar: problem solving,

proposals, and status reports. Excellent examples are

presented and discussed in detail, highlighting at every

stage of the process the points that should be focused

on to maximize the benefits of A3 thinking. The final

section of the book encompasses a range of issues

surrounding the implementation of A3 thinking from

a practical level to an organizational level. The third

section is weaker in content than the first two. There is

a feel that this has been bolted on to cover the imple-

mentation challenge, but it does not come with the

same positive impact as the first two sections.

Sobek and Smalley cover many important and in-

sightful methods and practices, and chapter 2 presents

the cohesive material that runs through the rest. Many

cross-references are made to the material in chapter 2,

which goes a long way to helping move the reader

away from knowing and toward understanding A3

thinking. In chapter 2, Sobek and Smalley focus on

what A3 thinking is. It is here where Sobek and Smal-

ley split the A3 thinking in half: The first covers the

behaviors to be adopted in A3 thinking, and the sec-

ond discusses the mechanics of problem solving with

A3 thinking. Sobek and Smalley outline seven key

elements to A3 thinking: (1) logical thinking process;

(2) objectivity; (3) results and process; (4) synthesis,

distillation, and visualization; (5) alignment; (6) co-

herence within and consistency across organization

and (7) systems viewpoint. All product developers and

service providers will not find this list unfamiliar: It is

almost common sense! However, what is missed is the

subtlety of the interpretation. The seven elements are,

more often than not, seen and interpreted as isolated

traits or behaviours that are required for good

BOOK REVIEWS J PROD INNOV MANAG2009;26:241–246

243